THE ROLE OF THE BOOK ‘GOD’S GENERALS’, NIGERIAN CHURCH HISTORY AND MY BIBLE IN MY QUEST TO DISCOVER THE PERSON AND POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
-Apostle Joshua Selman at Koinonia, Abuja, Nigeria
Holy Spirit may we never be too familiar with your presence in this place. We are people you have helped, we are people you have shown grace, mercy and while the world celebrates us what they see as our achievements we return to You in awe of Your goodness.
You are the wisdom behind every result in this house. It is by Your power oh God that we’re able to run through a troop.
Indeed it’s by Your grace we can leap over walls. You have given us a name and a praise even among the nations. We return thanks. Spirit of the living God.
Tonight we have come as a family within this nation and across the world to learn. We have come to see You, we have come to encounter your grace, we have come to be shifted by your power. As many as appear before the Lord even in Zion, this is Zion.
The house You have so beautified with Your glory, we thank You. Oh may the nations learn from us that it is only by the power of the Spirit that we Excel, that by His arm of flesh no man can prevail.
Some trust in horses, others chariots, but there is a generation that trusts in the name of the Lord. By our worship oh God may we mentor nations, may we mentor kings, may we teach them the excellency of a relationship with You. Tonight oh God be lifted in and over our lives in Jesus name.
Hallelujah
We are going to be dealing with a subject that is personal and so dear to me. We are going to be exploring the subject of the Holy Spirit and in every generation it seems like there are a few people who seemed to come into a level of relationship with this strange ancient Spirit and by whatever means.
Regardless their sociological orientations, He seems to have raised them to strange levels of impact.
Then you find out that when they leave, it looks like there is a decline in the understanding of His person again and then once and again He will find someone else whom He will use as a specimen to show the nations who He is and what He is able to do.
Please I would like you to be sensitive as I teach the Holy Spirit. Many of you will be introduced to realms and dimensions in the Spirit that will surprise you. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Living God.
I started my journey with God not looking for fame, not looking for power, not looking for ministry. It was a blind but sincere pursuit.
There was more in God and peradventure my life could be a revelation even to a generation.
I went to Church and I found out that while preachers preached, they preached powerful messages and while they were preaching I saw sick people, I saw confused people, I saw opressed people, they spoke so intelligently about the love of God, they spoke about the power of God, the power to heal, power to deliver.
Thus saith the Lord “I am bringing you close, I am drawing you to deeper levels with me”.
When they shared the Grace, I saw sick people walking back sick, we confessed that the Holy Spirit abides with us and yet people walked as though they were leaving a funeral.
Where was the power? Where was the grace? I saw how people prayed, begging God to show up.
The more I read my Bible I became confused as someone who’s missing something somewhere.
I had encounters that I could not explain. I had the opportunity to meet a few, well meaning, sincere ministers of the gospel, I asked them questions about the Holy Spirit they waved it with some theological answers and I said “no”.
Let me tell you one of the ways that God draws you into intimacy. He will reveal a dimension of Himself to you and hide it back. He hides it back so that you will begin to seek Him.
The dimension He hides back is a realm, He wants to become your habitation but He hides it so that you will prove your pursuit, your hunger. I began to pray.
I said “Lord there has to be men and women who don’t just talk about spiritual things and then I found “God’s Generals” (by Roberts Liardon) When I picked that book and I opened it I could not close it again. It was as though I was reading about my relatives, I said “This is it”, this is what I’ve been trying to ask, this is what I’ve been trying to seek”. Men who subdued kingdoms, shut the mouth of lions, they lived like ‘gods’ upon the earth.
Then I began to study the history of the Church in Nigeria and I came across strange men like Archbishop Benson Idahosa, men who shook this nation, not another nation.
I read about men like Apostle Babalola, men who carried power with God and I said “Something is wrong with your body O God”.
When did we reduce the power of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit to a theological Dissertation?
Where did we hide the demonstration of His power?
We call it the House of God, we claim that God is there and yet people come and they are not changed.
When the call of God came upon my life, I said “Lord do not send me without me knowing the Holy Spirit”. What will be my message to this arrogant world? When I stand before kings and nobles, who will I tell them sent me?
That began my journey, my pursuit, that desperate search for the person of the Holy Spirit.
I heard men like Benny Hinn talk about Him, Benny Hinn will stand on stage and talk how that Kathryn Kuhlman will say “Do not grieve my friend”! Where was that passion? Where did it go?
Today we have written books about Him and yet we do not know Him. We have organised conferences after His name yet we do not know Him. We have packed crusade grounds and we are utterly disappointed to the point where we do not know His power again.
When we see Him move, we are not sure He’s the one and yet I read from Scripture and I studied from history that He was the force behind the enviable liftings of men.
The force behind the rising of people, He was the one who lifted politicians like Daniel, lifted men like Joseph, empowered women like Mary, strengthened men like Elijah.
How would we want a great destiny without knowing his ministry and His presence?
Listen to me, God did not give us a religion, it was an experience. It still is an experience, introducing to us this personality that has been so misunderstood.
We call Him oil, He’s not oil, we call Him a bird, He’s not a bird, we call Him wind, He’s not wind, we call Him fire, He’s not fire.
“He’s the Holy Ghost,
Spirit of the Living God
He’s the Holy Ghost
Scepter of the King of kings
He’s the Holy Ghost
Seal of the age to come
He’s changing everything in obedience to Christ”.
The Holy Spirit is God. Who is He? Why is He so important that Jesus had to wait for His arrival to begin His ministry?
Jesus remained so impotent until the Holy Spirit arrived.
Having mentored His disciples for a period of three and half years He asked them to tarry until the Holy Spirit comes.
He’s so important, wait until He comes.
There is such a strong atmosphere of His presence. God is introducing many of you afresh into the ministry. It’s like an initiation because there are many of you, the call of God is upon your life.
There is a generation that must seek the God of Abraham. The call of God is upon your life.
You may not look like it but I tell you there is a call of God. He has found you. For those of you following, this is not some pentecostal jamboree, this is the Spirit of the Living God stirring up a move.
Listen you will not know what is happening to you now till you get out of this place and then you begin to see doors open the way you cannot explain, doors you have tried physically to open and did not open.
When the Holy Ghost steps in He does not waste your time. People are not just falling down and shouting, there is a recreation happening over destinies.
There are alignments happening. Perhaps some of you are in ministry here, no power, no grace, you struggle, it’s because you’re just doing ministry with just a book produced respectfully speaking. Let Him come and back you and you will watch the wonder working power of the Spirit of God.
You’ve done business on your own, but let him come and hold your hands and you’ll watch the frequency, the grace.
We are all ordinary except that when He comes to us, when He comes with us we become instruments of marvel and a wonder first to ourselves and then to all and sundry.
You know when you meet Him, oppressions just leave, just like that, yokes that cannot stand His presence just leave just like that, covenants, ordinances speaking, men that have vowed that because you’re from this lineage you cannot rise. Who shall declare a thing and it shall come to pass when the Lord Himself has not said so?
For the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.
John 1:5
- I speak to your body now, fibroids, every devil of oppression be healed now.
- I bring you the light and the glory of Heaven.
- High blood pressure goes down now.
- Every kind of medical diagnosis, we bring it under the influence of the Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ.
- Every organ malfunctioning, we declare a correction now and for every missing organ we declare a creation of a new one now.
- Pain around the limbs be healed right now.
- Any genotype problems, blood group problems, we change it now in the name of Jesus.
- Any altar that has refused to let you go,no matter how long in the name of Jesus we scatter those altars.
Abuja hear the Word of the Lord, Nigeria hear the Word of the Lord, let God’s people go now.
It seems as though there are 3 Gods.
Which one do we worship?
Which one do we serve?
There’s a lot of confusion so when we teach about the Ministry of the Holy Spirit there is further confusion if this is not cleared and the reason is because the Holy Spirit happens to be largely invincible and there has been no direct revelation of His form in terms of His human form.
The concept of the triune nature of God is a fact. The Bible thus tell us that even though God is the God of the universe, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is one. If you do not believe this, something might be wrong with your conviction. It is true that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is one, united.
Theologically speaking every time you want to examine a body of Spiritual truth, a subject, you’ll begin your study from Scripture and then the context with which that Word was mentioned first is the context that guides you as you study that subject.
Genesis 1:1-2
The first dimension of the Godhead revealed in Scripture is the Holy Spirit and He was the Spirit of God. He moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:1 did not just happen within a short time span.
You know that the Bible is a piece of literature and it was written largely in summary. You would think it just happened again and again.
There were prophets in the Bible that never met themselves. They were hundreds of years apart but when you read them because you’re reading a summary, it looked like one just died and then the other week another one started, no. Hallelujah.
So Lucifer was judged in Genesis 1:1
God created the Heavens and the earth and then the gap between
Genesis 1:1-2 is call the gap theory. It’s an attempt to explain what happened. The hundreds of years apart that would have led to this chaos and confusion because Genesis 1:2 is not an expression of the character of God outside of the influence of another deity.
The earth being dark and formless was as a result of the judgement so what you call creation story in Genesis chapter 1 is actually a recreation story. That was not the original creation.
Job in the height of his frustration, when you read chapter 38, Job was so frustrated because of his predicament, the Bible says he summoned God and He came to him in a whirlwind.
There was the day when the foundations of the earth was laid. You won’t see that in the Genesis account.
I hope you realize that what we call that Garden of Eden, the first occupants according to the revelation that Scripture brings in the garden of Eden was Lucifer himself.
Lucifer was an expression of God to the then creation. We are not the first of the human race, we are just a little above 6,000 years.
Jesus came to the earth for many reasons principally to bring many sons into glory, He came as an expression of the love of the Father, this was revealed through His substitutionary sacrifice to an end that whosoever believes Him shall live a glorious life.
He came to become a marking script, a correction over our perceptions about God because until Jesus came there were many things about God that people did not know.
They did not have the rich opportunity to enjoy the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the degree to which we enjoy. He did not have a permanent residence within them.
The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture.
2nd Timothy 3:15.
Holy men only did the right thing, the author was God. If you help me transcribe my thoughts into a book you will be rewarded for your intelligence but the creativity and the intellectual property remains my own.
So who really is the author of Scripture? It can’t be Peter, it can’t be John. They were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Why is this important?
It’s because if you ignore the Holy Spirit in an attempt to learn the scripture you’ll end up in error.
The source of error is to just be scientific about the error and not the person of the Holy Spirit. In as much as the Bible is truly an Archeological Book, a historical Book, a piece of literature, it is empowered with mysteries that only the author can unravel.
If the Holy Spirit does not assist you in opening Scripture, then you’ll find out that you’ll be reading history, you’ll be reading literature and poetry.
This Book is both old and sealed. You can open it but only the Holy Spirit can unlock the seals.
The Holy Spirit is a teacher, He will teach you things and bring all things to your remembrance.
- I rebuke memory loss in the name of Jesus Christ.
Direction tells you where to go, guidance tells you how to get there. When you’re walking with the Holy Spirit you will not get direction everyday. Sometimes in a whole year you may just get two or three instructions for your direction. What you need everyday is guidance.
When you submit to the ministry of the Holy Spirit you’ll be renewed and transformed in a little time going up by revelation.
The secret of being visible is to be hidden with the Holy Spirit. The visibility you’re looking for, He’s the custodian of it. The power for miracles, signs and wonders. You may receive impartation from men but genuine grace that lasts only come from Him.
You want to have understanding of the Word of God, you want to walk in victory, now triumph is only resident with Him.
The Holy Spirit is a gentle Spirit, he will not struggle and wrestle with the Spirit of man. You have your own will.
There are some of you here who are in ministry or have the call to serve the purposes of the Kingdom in the 5 fold. Some of you are called into business.
Can I tell you this, in all your getting, truly encounter the Holy Spirit. He will bring one business idea from your spirit that will cause nations to celebrate you forever.
Look what He’s done with our lives, look at it. He’s the master bringing beauty and glory.
There are things that you see, men cannot do this, brothers and sisters,no man can do this except God be with him.
Therefore I introduce you to the ministry of the Holy Spirit sent by God to make men.
Sent by God to produce champions.
You embrace His ministry, I assure you there is no power in existence that sustains the ability to bring you down. No divination, no enchantment whatsoever.
The Holy Spirit, God never sends us alone. You don’t just need ideas and partners, you need the Holy Spirit. You don’t just need intelligence and an opportunity to make policies, you need the Holy Spirit.
There was a wisdom behind the exploits of Daniel, a creativity behind Joseph.
The power that strengthened Deborah, intelligence that led Esther to become queen.
The wisdom that made Ruth become the wife of Boaz. Samson: the Spirit of might that came upon him to become a mighty man. Did you not see how David defeated Goliath. Time will fail me to talk of these men. The Holy Spirit.
You have embraced things of lesser value, now it’s time to give Him a chance. You have embraced money, you have embraced fame, you have embraced the complimentary cards of those you perceive to be great yet ignoring Him.
You have a garage for your car in your house because you consider it valuable, you have a jewelry collector for all your expensive jewelries, show me the place you have prepared for Him.
You have a store where you keep food in your house because you know that men shall not live by bread alone but the bread in the equation of this living.
Who taught us to ignore the ministry of the Holy Spirit?
We have interpreted Him today as a nuisance to civilization. When you talk to a business man about the Holy Spirit “Leave that Church thing”. It is only God that can give men rest.
God is calling you to a higher call, a higher dimension, it’s time to stop living an ordinary life. Your life will not produce glory when it is ordinary.
The Holy Spirit, you can invite Him and He can come and you can start a journey. That journey of power.
The Holy Spirit is not looking for an affair, He is looking for a relationship.
A relationship that lasts. After 30, 40, 50 years of your life, He’s still your best friend.
I introduce to you, one who is not just God alone but truly is the maker of men.
ApostleJoshuaSelman
Koinonia
